CHAPTER III. 

 THE PIKE (continued). 



CASTIMG OUT THE BAIT. 



Different methods of casting— The Nottingham style— The right- 

 Jianded cast— The cast from the left hand— How to cast from the reel- 

 Weights and their distribution— The forward swing-Casting with a 

 coiled line — A peculiar cast. 



In this chapter I propose to leave the beaten track for 

 awhile, saying nothing about the merits or demerits of the 

 various flights and tackles in use for pike fishing, but devote 

 the whole of it to a subject that I think has hardly ever been 

 .satisfactorily explained — I allude to the question of properly 

 casting out a bait. There seems to me to be two or three 

 different schools of fishermen, each throwing out the bait 

 in its own particular fashion, each more or less proficient 

 in its own peculiar style^ and all of them suited up to a 

 certain point to the requirements of the various waters in 

 which they ply their craft. As I hinted in the previous 

 chapter, there are those who coil the line at their feet, cast- 

 ing the bait from the rod point ; but this, in my opinion, is 

 not likely to be an unqualified success when tried in every 

 •conceivable situation, and under every condition, and in all 

 the difficulties to be encountered by the side of the river, 

 lake, or stream. Then again there are others who never use 

 the rod when casting out a pike bait, they simply coil a lot 

 of line on the ground, with the rod on rests, hanging the 

 bait in the crutch of a forked stick, and so slinging it out 

 without the aid of the rod at all. Then again there is the 

 •ever increasing army of casters who throw directly from the 

 reel in what is known as the Nottingham style. In my 

 opinion this style is far away and above any other, taking 

 all things into consideration ; places can be successfully spun 



